1965 Valiant LS Build

JGizmo said
Hey all, I've got a 1965 Valiant, and I planned on putting a 5.3 LS in it. Well that didn't work out, so I bought a junkyard 6.0 LQ9 Vortec out of a Cadillac Escalade. While technically not an LS the Vortec only has minor differences, and I think it was a better choice budget-wise. Over the last few days, I've completed fabricating engine mounts and a transmission mount, and I have everything set in the car. In order to keep costs down this build is very much an amalgamation of parts left over from my coworkers' other projects, though as the car progresses I'm sure I'll upgrade a lot of the parts. Since I just made it over the first major hurdle of this project I figured I'd make a post. I understand this isn't for everyone, but for anyone who is interested I'll attach some photos of my progress from the last couple of days, and I'll try to be detailed about the setup.

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As I mentioned, this is an LQ9 out of a 2004 Cadillac Escalade. I chose this over the LQ4 as it has flat-topped pistons giving it a higher compression ratio. I've got an LS9 camshaft in the engine with upgraded pushrods, rocker arm bearings, and valve springs. I used a center-sump oil pan from Sikky (needed an LS1 windage tray to fit the pickup tube). Using this pan I was able to clear the steering center link. As for K member clearance, I only had to beat the frame with a sledgehammer for an hour.
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Here is one of the motor mounts I built. This was my first time welding so go easy.
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As you can see I've used the factory transmission mount. I cut out the center section to give room for my new transmission and welded some reinforcements.
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I went with a Tremec TR3550 transmission and a 621 SBC bell housing, and the mounting holes only had to move a few inches forward.
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In order to get the 3-4 degree driveline angle I needed, cutting up the floor (and chopping a few ears off the transmission) was necessary.

I've still got plenty of learning and work ahead of me which I'll continue to post about in the future.

Awesome work!!! :thumbsup:

Don't worry about the haters with no imagination. It's amazing that there are still people out there that don't understand that you can get a running take out like you've got for a small fraction of the cost of a crate hemi or even a full rebuild on a 360 to bring it up to that hp level. Or that if you're capable of fabricating your own engine/transmission mounts that a swap like that isn't all that difficult to accomplish, you just have to be willing to do a little fabrication.

Just the work you've done yourself so far puts you ahead of probably 90% of the folks on this board. Lots of talkers, not nearly as many people that fabricate or even turn wrenches on their own stuff anymore. If you do your own work and put that old girl back on the road and drive it, well, that's more than good enough for me. Way too many checkbook cars and garage queens here already.

It was already mentioned, but if you're keeping the torsion bars you need to keep an upper half of your crossmember as well. It doesn't have to be complicated, but there does need to be something there to help carry the suspension loads that are carried in the transmission crossmember.

Keep up the good work!